GST registration threshold: $30,000 in one quarter or four

Every registration test in one table

The threshold lives in section 148 of the Excise Tax Act, which sets the base amount at $30,000, or $50,000 for a public service body, and runs two tests on it: the four calendar quarters before the current one, and the current quarter on its own laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. Your client stays a small supplier only while it passes both. The CRA spells out the effective date for each case canada.ca.

Once your client crosses, it has 29 days from the effective date to register. The tax applies from the effective date, not from the day the CRA issues the account number, so a late registration still owes GST/HST on every taxable sale after that date.

What counts toward the $30,000

The CRA's definition counts revenue from worldwide taxable supplies, added together with the revenue of every associate of your client. It leaves out the sale of goodwill, supplies of financial services and sales of capital property canada.ca.

Two gotchas catch people here. First, the associate rule: corporations associated with each other add their taxable supplies together against one $30,000 limit, so a new company controlled by an established one can be over the threshold from its first invoice. Second, zero rated exports count, so a Canadian business that sells almost entirely to US customers still crosses the threshold and has to register, even though it charges 0% on those sales.

A business in its first year tests whatever quarters it has. The CRA wording for most businesses is "previous four (or fewer)" quarters, so a new client doesn't get a free year.

Worked example: a consultant who crosses in 2026

Your client starts consulting in Ontario in January 2026. Calendar quarters, not the fiscal year, drive the test:

No single quarter reaches $30,000, so the single quarter test never bites. The four quarter total passes $30,000 during Q4: $27,000 + $8,000 = $35,000. Small supplier status ends at the end of the month after that quarter, which is January 31, 2027. January 2027 sales still go out without tax.

If the first invoice after that is dated February 2, 2027, the effective date of registration is no later than February 2, 2027, that invoice carries HST, and your client has to register within 29 days, so by March 3, 2027.

Now change Q3. Your client bills $8,000 in July and lands a $25,000 contract invoiced on August 14, 2026. The quarter reaches $33,000 on that invoice, so the single quarter test applies instead: your client stops being a small supplier on that supply, the $25,000 invoice itself carries HST, the effective date is no later than August 14, 2026, and the registration deadline is September 12, 2026. One large contract moves the date up by almost six months.

Charities, public service bodies, taxis and nonresidents

Public service bodies use the same two tests at $50,000 instead of $30,000 laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. A charity gets a second way to stay small: it is a small supplier in its first fiscal year, and after that while gross revenue for the previous fiscal year, or either of the previous two, was $250,000 or less. Gross revenue means the whole organization's income, gifts, grants, property and investment income and capital gains net of capital losses. A charity has to register only when it fails both the $250,000 gross revenue test and the $50,000 taxable supplies test, and then within 29 days of its first sale made as a non small supplier canada.ca.

Taxi operators and commercial ride sharing drivers who work for themselves must register even if they are small suppliers. The effective date is the day they start supplying taxable passenger transportation, so a new Uber or Lyft driver needs a GST/HST number before the first fare, not after $30,000 canada.ca. If it's unclear whether the driver works for themselves, Form CPT1 asks the CRA for a ruling.

A nonresident that carries on business in Canada registers on the normal $30,000 test. One with no business in Canada generally doesn't have to, except when it sells admissions to events held in Canada or sponsors a convention here where more than 25% of attendees are Canadian residents. A nonresident with no permanent establishment here usually has to post security, from a minimum of $5,000 to a maximum of $1 million canada.ca.

Nonresident vendors and platform operators selling digital products or services to Canadian consumers sit under a separate measure in force since July 1, 2021. Their trigger is more than $30,000 over any 12 month period of taxable supplies to specified Canadian recipients, meaning consumers and businesses not registered under the normal regime. Zero rated supplies are left out of that count canada.ca.

Should your client register before crossing?

A small supplier can register voluntarily. The effective date is usually the date of the request, and it can go back up to 30 days before it canada.ca.

The rule of thumb: a client selling to other registered businesses usually gains, and a client selling to the public usually loses margin. Once registered, check whether the Quick Method lowers net tax, and diarize the GST/HST filing deadline for the reporting period the CRA assigns.

Registration itself runs through Business Registration Online, or Form RC1 in some cases. If your client was required to register, or was charging tax, for more than 30 days before registering, ask the CRA to backdate the registration canada.ca.